Florida Department of Education reviewing AAPI history standards

The Florida Department of Education is reviewing academic standards created as part of a new Asian American and Pacific Islander curriculum, Action News Jax reports. The state recently passed a law (HB 1537) requiring K-12 public schools to teach AAPI history.

According to WMNF, the department has created a “civics workgroup” to review and possibly write new standards. The group will meet three times in October.

HB 1537 also outlines several key elements of AAPI history that must be taught under the curriculum, including topics like immigration, citizenship, civil rights, identity, and culture, WOKV reports. Schools must also cover the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

“Something I think is essential not for just us as Americans but for our youth, is to learn about the contributions of these Asian Americans in history and that they can learn from the triumphs and mistakes of the past. That way we can take pride in our history,” Mimi Chan, the Director of Make Us Visible Florida, who pushed for the bill’s passage told WMFE in an April interview.

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